The Burning Monk

• 1.0 oz. London dry gin
• 1.0 oz. Punt e Mes
• 0.5 oz. Campari
• 0.5 oz. Gran Classico
• 2 dashes Habinero Hellfire Shrub

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe.
Garnish with a burnt orange peel and fresh ground cinnamon.

My first The Light in the Piazza cocktail was a riff on the Negroni since that came from Florence, the first setting I was highlighting. In the musical, the American mother and daughter go to the site where the monk who preached the bonfire of the vanities was burned. I don’t know why I was inspired by this morbidity, but I was.

As in a Negroni, I kept a third of the drink gin and a third vermouth. For the latter I chose the tasty Punt e Mes, which offers a bit more bitter. Because of that I only used a half ounce of Campari, and for the rest of the bitter component turned to Gran Classico, which leans to the sweeter side.

I felt it was only fitting to add some Hellfire Shrub to heat things up, and of course garnished with a flamed orange. The extra cinnamon spice? Ashes, of course.